Friday, September 28, 2012

I Think I've Recovered

We have been back from the clogging convention a full five days now and I think I've recovered. Actually, 'recovered' is not the right word, its more like 'normalized'.

We started the trip at 4.30am on Thursday and arrived in Adelaide at around 9am. I couldn't believe how fresh and energized I felt. All my plane trips for the past six years has been with one or two children in tow and I was so used to arriving at my destination, completely drained before even starting my holiday that I had incorrectly started to think that it was the norm. We checked into a crappy motel and then we were off to the beautiful Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills for some lunch and shopping. O.M.G. Food never tasted so good nor retail therapy felt as satisfying. Don't get me wrong, the food and wine was definitely first class and the shops in this picturesque little village were full of beautiful things but it was the fact that I could take it all in, in peace, that really made the difference.

Here's a photo from Hahdorf - Australia's oldest German settlement. German Lutheran immigrated here in 1838 when they were persecuted by the King of Prussia.

The convention officially started on Friday night and we were clogging for the rest of the weekend. I think it was the combination of the boosted levels of endorphins and the sudden freedom from parental responsibility that had me on a high all weekend. I hardly ate or slept and yet I had all the energy in the world! All the workshops, from basics to advanced, were fun. I love it when I have to stress my brain and body in an advanced class only to find that its too wired up after that and gets confused in a basic class afterwards. Keeps things interesting!

Needless to say, the clogging convention was fantastic fun and I am already looking forward to the one in Canberra next year. I'm still not good enough to be putting videos up but here's a photo of my parents and I.

So what happened when we arrived back in Brisbane? We got home after midnight and I was up again at 6am because Richard had to leave for work. 6am was no earlier than I was waking up over the weekend but all of a sudden, there was no clogging to look forward to and only two kids that needed breakfast to be made. It was hard to go from the extreme high of the weekend back to the day to day life of a stay at home mom. I thought of the kids over the weekend but I didn't miss them at all - they were in good hands and I knew that Richard was giving them a fun weekend. The day to day things made time fly but it is only now that I feel 'normal' again in my routine. No more super highs and that sudden feeling of a crash landing. I'm back in the rhythm of the stay-at-home mom life but I am more motivated than ever to become a better and faster clogger.

2 comments:

Congratulations! Glad you had such a wonderful time. Today was my first day back at work after our vacation, and I understand your issue of going from the "extreme high" back to the everyday low. I'll be waiting for those videos ...